Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox extremists clashed with police in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh on Monday night as they protested authorities’ plans to perform autopsies on the bodies of two babies who died in an overcrowded, unlicensed daycare center in the capital.
Police and the State Prosecutor’s office are pushing for the autopsies in order to uncover the exact cause of death for 4-month old leah Goloventzitz and 6-month-old Aharon Katz, whose bodies were found on Monday morning, along with 53 other babies and toddlers with varying degrees of injuries at the Haredi daycare center.
The autopsies would help police investigators confirm their working theory that the two babies died of heat exhaustion and dehydration linked to a faulty heating system in the illegal daycare, which operated out of several adjacent apartments on Ha’Mem Gimel street in Jerusalem’s Haredi-majority Romema neighborhood.
The parents of the two deceased babies oppose the operations, as Orthodox Jews consider any tampering with a dead body a desecration, and the matter was brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. The judge ruled in favor of Israeli authorities on Thursday evening, but the babies’ parents, along with the ultra-Orthodox Zaka emergency service, said they planned to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Israel Police said in a statement that officers responded to protests at the Shmuel Hanavi junction in Jerusalem, where protestors were causing disruptions, blocking roads, burning garbage bins, damaging vehicles and disrupting the lives of citizens. Police said the protesters also hampered the movement of public buses and damaged cars.
“After police declared the protest illegal, officers began dispersing the rioters who clashed with police,” the statement said, adding that the rioting was “endangering lives and could end with a serious tragedy.”
At least two infants were found dead and dozens of children hospitalized with respiratory distress after a mass incident at a daycare in the Tel Aviv suburb of Yavne on January 20, 2026. Rescue services evacuated 53 children from the daycare, all exhibiting varying symptoms.
The exact number of infants at the daycare was initially unknown to first responders. A United Hatzalah member reported discovering children “in closets, in strollers, everywhere, hidden on top of one another with blankets” while administering CPR to the two infants who later died.
The National Council for the Child has called for an immediate investigation by Israel Police and the Education Ministry,focusing on both negligence and the daycare’s operating license.
